Outspoken critics showing up at public meetings to question decisions made by a procession of Flint mayors, city council members and emergency managers.

But come Nov. 5, Eric Mays and Alex Harris could find themselves in an unfamiliar position – seats on the Flint City Council.

While some might lump them in with a group of Flint City Hall gadflies – those who, by definition, can be annoying because of constant criticism – Mays takes the label as a badge of honor.

“If you try to violate the law and run over the poor and the least of them in the community – I’m going to be annoying and I’m going to be annoying at your meeting,” said Mays, who is running for a seat as First Ward councilman. “I don’t use the word gadfly. I use the word activist. I believe I can do it better from city council.”

In the Seventh Ward, where Harris finished second, he said he doesn’t much care for the label.

“I think the things I’ve done have served this community,” Harris said. “I resent that sort of characterization. I think my record; my involvement in my community speaks for itself.”

Although they’ve never worked together politically, both Harris and Mays said they’re experienced in recalling local elected officials.

Mays is currently suing the city over the demolition of Genesee Towers. He is appealing a conviction of a misdemeanor charge of disrupting a public meeting when he spoke out against tax breaks to business locating downtown.

For Harris, his push to get recall language for former Mayor Don Williamson was a feather in his political cap.

“I believe if Williamson isn’t quickly removed as soon as possible, we’ll see a financial collapse of a magnitude Flint has never seen before,” Harris told MLive-Flint Journal in 2008. “The house of cards he’s been operating from is soon to collapse.”

Mays subpoenaed Flint emergency manager Michael Brown during Mays’ jury trial in February. Mays was convicted after acting as his own attorney in the case after he was arrested last summer for disrupting a public meeting.

Earlier this month, Mays said he is using the his lawsuit trying to halt the demolition of Genesee Towers as a way to show he has the political will to stand up to Brown, while the current city council lacks that same initiative.

“I have my own history with both Eric Mays and Alex Harris,” Brown said, adding he’s confident he can work with both. “Who knows who is really going to come through the general election.”

Council President Scott Kincaid said he wouldn’t discuss individual candidates or races.

“I
really don’t want to comment on it because it will be up to the
voters,” he said. “I don’t want to say anything negative because I may
have to work with them.”

Anita Brown beat out Mays by 55 votes to win the First Ward primary. The 1,003 total voters was the second-highest turnout of the five wards that primaries.

She thinks her 20-plus years in the now-defunct ombudsman office puts her in better touch with the First Ward than Mays.

Although she has attended many of the same meetings as Mays, she said she sits back and listens rather than take to the podium during the public comment period.

She doesn’t think the she’ll have a problem going up against Mays’ name recognition or the numerous attempts Mays has made for other political offices.

“I’ve been at numerous events and meetings with Eric over the years,” Brown said, “that’s just the way he is. Personally, I think he’s a good guy.”

Mays said he won’t back away from his past in the election.

“My track record goes back 30 years. I’ve been controversial – even effective – in the UAW,”adding that his elected experience with the union and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People will help him once elected to city council. “I don’t believe in the emergency manager. I believe in democracy. I’m not hasty. I have a constituency that agree with me whether we’re in the majority of the minority.”

Voters in Flint have chosen the wrong people to represent them and now, Mays said, the city is paying for it.

“I don’t lack the political will. I’m just not satisfied with the direction the city has been going,” he said. “We have made wrong decisions in elections in the city.”

Monica Galloway, a licensed realtor who spent 15 years in the banking industry, beat Harris by 91 votes to win the Seventh Ward primary.

She said she’s not worried about Harris.

“When a person has a passion for something, it drives them,” Galloway said. “If anything, it might actually benefit me. I don’t know Alex. I don’t know his history... what he’s done in the past – he’s driven. I’m sure when he made those decisions that he felt those decisions were the best for him and the people he represented.”

Harris said he got involved in former mayor Woodrow Stanley’s recall after it was already underway.

He then spearheaded the effort to oust Williamson, but the former mayor left office on the verge of a recall vote.

“Both were bad mayors and both were not serving the community well,” Harris said.

Making it onto an elected body as an outspoken critic doesn't always translate into change.

Flint school board member David Davenport, who ran unsuccessfully in the Second Ward, often is the sole vote of opposition during Flint School district board meetings. He said he will work with the rest of the board only if that decision will be in the best interest of students.

“If they weren’t I would fight against it,” said Davenport, who added he is still a write-in candidate for city council in the Second Ward. “I think I’ve been effective because (former superintendent) Linda Thompson is gone.”

Davenport said he will not seek reelection to the school board, but said what he sees as shedding light on crucial subjects is needed, while others call it controversial.

“If I had to do it all over again I would – the exact same way,” Davenport said. “Being controversial is right some times.”

Flint City Council members have limited power with an emergency manager in place and only get partial pay of about $7,000 per year without benefits.

The city finished with a balanced budget in 2013 for the first time in seven years and is slated to do the same in 2014.

However, the city still has a $19.1 million deficit from 2012 and is has an annual structural deficit of $3 million.

Political analyst and Flint native Bill Ballenger offered some advice for Harris and Mays.

“Basically when you’re an agitator you’re negative,” said Ballenger, who is the publisher of Inside Michigan Politics. “If you’re running, you should have to have some ideas.”

Although the primary races were close and featured low voter turnout, Ballenger said it still could be tough for both Mays and Harris.

“If you finish second in a primary, it’s kind of tough to reverse it,” Ballenger said. “Now an agitator has really got to make his case that they have something to offer and if they get in office they have to put up or shut up.”

Larry O’Neal didn’t vote for Brown or Mays in the primary but said Mays will have his support in November.

“The good think about it is he’s not scared to voice his opinion,” O’Neal said. “The bad thing about it is he doesn’t know how to voice his opinion. I believe if he wins the election (people) will listen to him because he has a position.”

Seventh Ward resident Carl Sparks said he has heard of Harris, but didn’t vote in the primary.

“It’s always better to have an outsider looking in,” Sparks said. “I’d like to see someone go against the big guys who are screwing everyone.”

Sparks said it was more important that whoever is elected have the ability to actually do the job of a city council member rather than have a good personality.

“I think a change would be good with the way things have been running the last few years,” he said.